A Lesson Plan and My Reflection

Summary: In my opinion , a lesson plan is essential and important to a teacher .For a teacher, a plan gives a framework, an overall shape. A lesson plan helps a teacher a
lot because it allows teachers to think about where theyre going and gives them time to have ideas for tomorrows and next weeks lessons. In the classroom , a plan helps
to remind teachers what they intended to do especially if they get distracted or momentarily forget what they had intended. After class , teachers do some feedback and
they will find out areas of success and areas for improvement. As a result, teachers will do better step by step.
Keys: plan reflection

Part 1
Lesson Plan
Teacher:

Course book (name/unit/page)

Century English S1 Unit 4

Holidays and Festivals in the United Kingdom

Main Lesson Aims

Subsidiary Aim

1. By the end of the lesson , the students will have a better ability to By the end of the lesson, the students will have a better ability to use three phrases
find out the information needed by skimming and scanning .
in practice.
2. By the end of the lesson , the students speaking ability to describe
a festival or holiday will have been improved.

Personal Aims

1. Try to give simple and clear instructions.

2. Try to check my teaching methods are effective in motivating students.

Assumptions
1. The students know something about Christmas, such as the date, Father Christmas
2. The students are familiar with the simple present tense

Class profile and Timetable Fit

Class 3, Senior One is made up of 17 girls and 18 boys, most of whom are sixteen years old. The learners language ability is lower intermediate level.
They can understand and follow most of the teachers instructions in the lesson and express themselves in simple language. Though their vocabularies and
knowledge of grammar are very limited, they are active in class activities .I always try to make each student engaged in the lesson by means of solowork,
pair work and group work. . Most of them like to communicate with each other in English, while its hard for 8 students to express themselves in English.
This reading material is suitable for the level of my students. In the past two days, the students have read about the Chinese festival such as the MidAutumn Festival and the Spring Festival. Today, two major western festivals are introduced in the lesson, and the students can be aware of the cultural
difference in festivals and holidays in the United Kingdom and China.

Anticipated Problems and Solutions

1
2

Problems
The students may know little about Easter food ----the hot cross buns
Students mightnt understand the teachers instructions of the activities well.

Lexis: round off sit down to

deliver a message

Solutions
Show the picture of it and explain why the bread is made like that .
Give simpler and clearer instructions and check whether they have
understood by asking someone to tell what they are going to do .
First, I ask sts to look for the phrase in the Par 2 whose meaning is
similar to start to do ; finish completely; make a speech in public
,then give an example and check their understanding by CCQ.

Language Analysis
lexis :

Form/pronunciat Meaning / CCQ

ion

Christian

['kristn]

decoration

[.dek'rein]

round off

sit down to sth

deliver a message

Verb phrase

collocation

An expression

Meaning: a person who believes in the teaching of Christ

Explain the meaning with some pictures.
CCQ: Are they Christians? (Y)
Do the Christians go to church every week ? (Y)
Meaning: something that decorates
Explain the meaning with some pictures.
CCQ: Whats the verb of decoration? (decorate v.)
Meaning : to finish completely
1) I ask sts to look for the phrase in Par 2 whose meaning is similar to finish completely
.
2) Eg: After he rounded off the work, he went home.
CCQ: Did he finish his work? (Y)
Could he go home? (Y)
Meaning :to start to do sth
1) I ask sts to look for the phrase in Par 2 whose meaning is similar to start to do ,
2) Eg: They sat down to the business as soon as they arrived in London.
CCQ: Did they have a rest after they got to London? (N)
Did they start their business at once? (Y)
Meaning : make a speech in public.
1) I ask sts to look for the phrase in Par 2 whose meaning is similar to to make a speech
in public .

2) Eg: He always felt nervous when he delivered a message .

CCQ: Did he often make a speech in public? (Y)

Stage

Interaction
T>sts

Lead-in

Skim reading S-S

and feedback S>T

Time
4-5

3-4

Procedure

Objective/
Purpose of stage
Sts are familiar with April Fools Day and Valentines Day, Show the pictures to To engage sts interest
motivate their interest in Festivals and Holidays of the West.
To help the sts move away the
T: There are many Festivals and Holidays in the West. Would you like to name obstacle to reading.
some of them?
STs: different answers.
T: Look at these pictures. What festival is it?
S: Valentines Day.
T: What do people do on the day?
Sts: various answers.
Explain the two new words Christian and decoration showing the pictures
and giving some examples.
T will ask sts to skim the first part of the text to find out the answers to the four To develop sts skimming
questions on Easter.
reading skills
Sts will read the first part of the text . After reading ,the students compare and
check their answers in pair (2 minutes for skimming).
1.When is Easter?
2. Whats the date of Good Friday?
3.Whats the date of Easter Monday?
4. What special food in eaten on Easter?

Scan reading S-s

and Feedback S>T

3-5

Role play and S>T

feedback

5-7

Prediction
task

S>T

3-5

Clarification

T-sts

4-6

Skim reading S>T

And feedback

4-6

T will ask the sts to read the first part carefully for some detailed information of
Easter.
Ss will scan the text to get the detailed information about Easter and fill in the
table individually.( 3 minutes)
Peer checking
Brief oral feedback led by T if anything needs to be clarified
T will encourage the Sts to play a role with their partners.
Eg:S1: I know you come from America. I am interested in your festival Easter.
Would you like to tell me something about it ?
S2: Of course , Id like to .
S1: When is Easter?
S2: The date varies each year. It usually falls in March and April.
S1: What special food in eaten on Easter?
S2:

T will hand out the competition paper to ask Sts to work in small groups to
predict the content of the text about Christmas and make preparations for the
text. (a competition)
T will clarify the meaning of some words and phrases by explaining the meaning
, showing the pictures and giving some examples. T will check the students
whether they have understood the meaning by asking CCQ.
T will enquire Sts to work in small groups to answer the questions and find out
the correct answers.(4 minutes for skimming)a competition Who is the first
to find out the answers ?

To develop sts scanning skills

Check the sts understanding of

the text; improve their oral
English

Develop
prediction
skills;
stimulate the students curiosity
about Christmas
To help the sts further
understand the text
Develop skimming reading skills

Scan reading S>T

and feedback

4-6

9.

Presentation
and feedback
Homework

8-10

10.

S>T
T>S
T

T will give the Sts 5minutes to read the text and fill in the table . Then they Develop scan reading skills
compare and check their work together in small groups.
.
Sts are asked to present Christmas with some pictures in small groups .
Develop sts ability to give a
The teacher gives oral comments on sts and gives a summary on todays lesson
presentation on Christmas.
a. Read the text twice .
b. Compare the difference between Christmas and the Spring Festival.

Part 2
My Reflection
Areas of success
I have achieved the teaching objectives of this lesson. Look back to the lesson again , I find I did well in the following aspects.
1. Successful lead-in
The lead-in activity plays an important role in a successful lesson, because its the beginning of a lesson. As an old saying goes, A good beginning is half done. As the
first stage of a lesson, the lead-in activity should give students hints so that they will predict whats coming. This activity will make the students better and more
engaged readers. (P70 How to Teach English) . In my lesson, the lead-in was successful .I showed them some pictures in ppt about Valentines Day and April Fools day. I
asked the students to guess what festival it was, when it was and what people did on the day. Because they were familiar with the two festivals of the West , they were
involved in the activity at once. The students were so interested in the activity that they were engaged in it. That was a good beginning for the lesson. Judging from the
students responds, this activity aroused the students interest and activated the students the schemata about the text .I knew I managed to finish this activity as expected.
2. I succeeded in using the methodology T T T (Test Teaching Test) in my class.
In stage 5, before the students came to the text about Christmas, I distributed a handout to each group. I asked them to finish the multiple choices by discussing the
questions and answers in small groups. I gave them 2 minutes to finish the task and two minutes later I asked them to read the text to find the answers. The students were
very interested in this activity. Every student took a more active part in it than I had thought, even those whose English was poor gave their answers. The teaching

approach motivated the students and made the students curious about the content of the text. They felt an awareness of success after they learned the text.
3. In the lesson, I applied co-operation and competition.
While reading activities, such cooperative and competitive study atmosphere had a positive effect on every student. They had more chances to learn each other. Thus,
most of them were active in class, including the weak students. The strong students helped the weak ones and the average students were also willing to compare their
answers with the strong students and they discussed with one another. The strong students felt proud of their ability to give a hand to the weak ones. They wouldnt think
they had nothing to do after finishing the task. The students with poor attitude towards English would not doze and chat. .

4. In skimming and scanning stages, the students performed well.

Every student was engaged in the learning activity. By skimming, the students checked their prediction about Christmas. By scanning, the students got some specific
information about Christmas and Easter. I achieved one of my main aims By the end of the lesson, the students will have a better ability to find out the information
needed by skimming and scanning. According to what they did, I know the effect of the teaching was good in skimming and scanning stages.

Areas for improvement

1. I should rearrange the students seats.
The class teacher seated weak learners at the back of the class, which caused a problem for my teaching that the groups were not divided fairly. In future lessons, above all,
I will divide the students into groups according to their learning ability, their gender and their attitude towards English. For instance, In each group, there can be 2 strong
students,2 average students and one or two weak students, also boys and girls should be mixed. If so, while skimming, all groups would have no trouble in finishing the
task. Whats important is that teenagers like senior I students are fond of helping each other and learning from each other. Thus, each student thinks they have the
responsibility to help their own group to finish the task. The strong students like to lend a hand to the weak ones and the weak ones will feel that they should be obliged to
work for their group as well.
2 . I should give clearer and simpler instructions and produce ICQ.
I didnt take notice of my instructions in usual classes . Although I tried to give clear and simple instructions in English in this lesson, I didnt do it well. In stage 3, I
forgot to provide ICQ. In stage 4, the role-play activity would have been better if I had given clear more staged instructions and brainstorm questions and had given ICQ.
In these two activities, some students didnt understand the instructions clearly. They were puzzled about what they were supposed to do next. I should have given them
one sample or asked one or two students to tell what they were going to do.
3. I should not echo what the students said.
Because normally some of my students spoke in low voice, I got used to repeating what they said. As a result, a few boys didnt pay attention to what the others said but

to whistle. Obviously they werent involved in some activities. Also repeating cost a lot of teaching time.
4. I should have a good command of correcting the students error properly.
In the middle of their communicative activities, on one hand, I interrupted the students and corrected their mistakes several times. Looking back to the situations, I found
my interruption had a negative effect on the students. As stated by Jeremy Harmer (2007,p.143) During communicative activities, however, it is generally felt that
teachers should not interrupt students in mid-flow to point out a grammatical, lexical or pronunciation error, since to do so interrupts the communication and drags an
activity back to the study of language form or precise meaning. In fact, the students have a lot to gain from coming up against communication problems. The value of
such activities lies in the various attempts that students have to make their meaning across. Unfortunately my interruption in such circumstances could raise the students
stress level and stop processing language for acquisition in its tracks. On the other hand, while the students were doing pair work or group work, I walked around to
monitor the class, I should have noted down some common problems. After the activity, I should have corrected in open class.
5. I should take notice of the time arrangement
Due to lack of careful time arrangement, there was no time for me to carry on the stage 9 Presentation and feedback. I had intended to give students five minutes to talk
about Christmas to develop their oral fluency. This stage was so important that it was one section of this class that should have been finished. As a result, the students lost
more opportunities to practice and use English in realistic situations.

Which aspects led to success.

1.. A detailed teaching plan is vital.
As stated by Jim Scrivener (2002,p.44)The better prepared you are, the more likely it is that youll be ready to cope with whatever happens. The detailed teaching plan
gave me more confidence. When I designed the plan, I thought about every stage carefully, especially my main aims, stage aims and different activities, which gave a clear
lesson framework, an overall shape. In the classroom, my teaching plan also reminded me what I intended to do when I hardly forgot to ask the students to compare their
answers and check with their partners.
2.Reading and learning good English teaching books contributes to success.
In the past two years , I have read some original English books on how to teach English as a second language ,such as The Practice of English Language Teaching written
by Jeremy Harmer , Learning Teaching by Scrivener, J, How to Teach English by Harmer, J. and so on. The different methodology TTT and ESA helped me to design my
lessons, in which the most important is students focus. I used to check students answers in open class without peer checking, enough interaction between students or
different feedback. But in this lesson , I gave a variety of feedback so that the students were encouraged to perform well .Meanwhile ,in this lesson, I had a good rapport
with the students and I encouraged enough interaction between students. As a whole, I did succeed in achieving my teaching main aims. Only by learning continuously,

can I make more improvement in my teaching career.

What you would do differently

1. I will write out and rehearse my instructions and proper ICQS.
I have some trouble in giving simple and clear instructions. If I pay more attention to the problem and practice enough before the lesson, I think I
can get over it as soon as possible. If so, the students who dont understand the instructions will finish the task better and faster. .
2. I will spend some time working with individual students and correct their errors while the others are doing one task. For example, while group A
and C are doing one task, I can spend some time with group B who need special attention. Moreover, while monitoring, I can also note down
problems and later Ill correct some common errors in open class.
3. I will encourage the students speak aloud and I wont echo students responds, because it was wasting time; meanwhile, the other students would
form a bad habit that they thought they didnt need to listen to the others since the teacher would repeat. What was worse, the speaker would not
think it was his responsibility to make himself heard clearly. Ive been aware of it now and I will make effort to avoid doing so.
Bibliography
1. Scrivener, J. (2002)
Learning Teaching , Shang Foreign Language Education Press
2.Harmer, J. (1998)
How to Teach English ,AWLL
3.Harmer, J. (2007)
The Practice of English Language Teaching, Pearson Education Limited